


Out in the Cold

by Rebekah_Zellers



Category: NCIS
Genre: Bullying, Teamwork, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-28 19:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30144591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebekah_Zellers/pseuds/Rebekah_Zellers
Summary: Human Resources is a thankless job no matter the company, but when you're Human Resources at a government agency it means you are not very popular... and when you are Delores Bromstead, that's an understatement.   See how surprising friendships that she's forged save her life.
Comments: 44
Kudos: 75





	1. Chapter 1

Gibbs caught the glimpse of movement over the sky light as he worked, it wasn’t unusual for someone to go up for some fresh air. Returning to the task at hand, Jethro did not pay any attention to the roof until a shadow reminded him someone was up there an hour later.  
With temperatures near freezing, he decided that he better go investigate. Stopping at Vance’s office along the way, the two men worked their way up to the roof with their weapons at their side. 

“Someone tied the handle to the railing,” Vance sighed. “There is the brick that we block it with too.” Opening the door, the men found Delores huddled in the corner. “I’ll get Dr. Palmer.” Vance took the time to tie the door to the other railing so that it would remain open.

“Here,” Gibbs holstered his gun and proceeded to take off his suit jacket. “Can you stand?”

“No,” Delores whispered. “I am too cold; I hurt so badly.”

“Delores,” Tony rushed out with his go bag, blankets and coat. “We’ve got you. Let’s get my sexy sweats on you. Your legs are going to look so much better in these than mine. Boss, can you start working on getting my socks on her feet, please.”

“Tube socks?” Delores whispered through chattering teeth. “How did you know?”

“Oh, you know it,” Tony laughed. “I don’t leave home without them. Now, you get to make my coat look like it is on a fashion runway. To answer your question, Vance found me on his way to get Jimmy and told me. I predict that you will be sweating soon.”

“I hope so,” Delores laughed. “I feel ridiculous now I really can’t move.”

“You didn’t bring her any shoes?” Gibbs joked. “I want to see her try to walk in those boats you wear.”

“Designers boats, Agent Gibbs.” There was a giggle that put Gibbs as ease. “I have rheumatoid arthritis with secondary Raynaud’s Phenomenon. In a nutshell, I have extreme reactions to cold.”

“Will you be okay?” Gibbs was trying to not allow his anger to show. 

“She’ll be better when we can get her up,” Tony sighed as he looked up at Gibbs, the look of pure rage flaring. “I think we should just go for it; I can carry her once we get her to her feet. Here we go.”

Delores reached out to hold tight to Gibbs as Tony took a few seconds before he picked her up. “Sorry. It’s going to hurt, I am trying not to panic.”

“It’s okay. He needs to make sure he has a good hold on you and not just the clothes,” Gibbs explained. “I’ll help him get you to your feet.” There was such tenderness in the way that Gibbs handled Delores, it had her fighting every emotion. “Just relax, you’re going to be off this damn roof soon.” 

Gibbs untied the door while Tony lifted Delores into his arms. Walking carefully down the steps from the room, the younger agent was protective of his friend as he whispered reassurances and things to make her laugh as they walked. By the time they got to the main level, Gibbs was shocked when Tony waited for him to open the door to the main floor. 

“Going to get on the elevator now,” Tony explained as he waited for the door to open relieved to find Palmer getting off with his bag to head for the steps.

“Hey there,” Palmer’s voice was calm which gave Delores the reassurance to pick her head up. “Let’s go up to Director Vance’s office, it is warmer up there. Autopsy is going to be too cold. He told me to bring you up there, camping in the official office is going to be fun. He has the most comfortable sofa in there.” Palmer chattered to his friends, he hoped that the playfulness and sound of his voice would put the stricken woman at ease.

Vance was waiting, when they arrived, pulling Gibbs to his desk to start looking at video from the security cameras. “Find the person, Gibbs.” Vance growled as he moved to close his door, the faces of Torres, McGee and Bishop annoying him with their presence.

“How much pain are you in?” Palmer questioned as he took vitals. “I can make you more comfortable. Please, I don’t want you suffering until you warm up.”

“It’s been worse,” Delores whispered. “It’s barely tolerable; I would appreciate something.”

Palmer injected something that left Delores feeling groggy and more comfortable. “Rest here,” Palmer pulled a blanket over his patient. “Let me know when you are getting too hot. I am going to send for some lunch, given the hour I am going to guess you didn’t get any.”

“Delores,” Gibbs moved a chair closer to the sofa where their patient was resting. “Can you remember seeing or hearing anyone?”

“It was a male voice,” Delores sighed. “It was familiar.”

“Why were you on the roof?” Tony needed to understand what sent his friend up to the roof, with no coat, at 10:30 in the morning. “What happened?”

“I just needed some air,” Delores sighed. “Someone set something off near my office, I couldn’t handle the odor, so I went up there to clear it out of my lungs. I wasn’t going to stay up there. I put the brick in the door and walked over by the sky light took a few deep breaths to get that rid of that awful smell. Turning to go back towards the door when the brick was taken out and the door slammed shut.”

“We’re going to figure it out,” Tony sighed. “I’m going to check around your office to see what I can find; you stay with Jimmy. He will take good care of you and Director Vance won’t let anyone try anything.”

Gibbs and Tony made their way to the Human Resource office. There was an odor still lingering in the air which they were able trace to trash can that was inside the door. “That doesn’t belong there. Delores has a very methodical way of doing things and a garbage can at the door is not one of them.”

“Childish move,” Gibbs sighed. “Not beyond the mentality of several in the agency though. Can’t even classify that as a stink bomb so we aren’t dealing with someone that can mix a couple things together to get the desired result. She’s not a popular person here, but that is her job so why target her with this?”

“She is intimidating as hell,” Tony stated as he started looking through his friend’s things. “I’m going to dust for prints, go through her mail, files and desk.” The first pile turned up nothing, but the second pile contained a letter that clearly threatened his friend. “Threatening letter. Here’s another one.”

“Grab them,” Gibbs sighed. “Need to talk to Delores about them, there must be some reason why she would be targeted. Could be an audit of files or evaluations. We’ll let Vance work on them while we fingerprint the door to the roof, get the brick to Kasie.”

“You know that Delores and Kasie are friends, right?” Tony reassured Gibbs that their forensic expert would make this issue a top priority.

“How’d that happen?” Gibbs was curious how Tony managed to broaden the woman’s circle.

“Delores is a great card and board game player,” Tony snickered. “Palmer, Kasie, Ducky, and Burley come over to my place for games. There is a lot more to her than the grouchy human resource lady, she’s actually pretty cool when she is comfortable with you.”

“Tony,” Kasie stepped into the doorway with Ducky by her side. “Is she okay? McGee said you carried her through the bullpen to the elevator.”

“Someone locked her out in the cold,” Gibbs reported. “Deliberately moved the brick from the door and tied the handle to the railing so that it couldn’t pop back open.”

“I’m going to the roof,” Kasie growled. “Permission to take Agent Burley with me, Gibbs.”

“Do it,” Gibbs nodded as he watched Ducky do a slow boil. “Want you to work with Vance. Someone locked her out there; Tony found threatening letters. It’s possible they are from the same person that locked her out, it is possible they are not related.”

“Given her position,” Ducky sighed. “Our list could be very long. Anthony’s relationship with Ms. Bromstead only came to pass because of a Secret Santa pick. Once he gained her trust, he brought the rest of us into her life. She is a very intelligent woman, funny too. I know you have been invited to play cards with us, Jethro. Next time, I think you should say yes.”

Gibbs sighed and gave a look that made it look as if he was not too keen on joining the group for game night. “We’ll see, Duck.”

“Jethro,” Ducky growled. “Ms. Bromstead is not a bad person; she has had a rather difficult life. She has a job that puts in her in a tough position without the support of the Director or SecNav.”

“I need to understand that statement a better,” Vance stated from where he had been observing. “Ms. Hines is in with Ms. Bromstead, I wanted to give them some privacy. As you were saying, Doctor?”

“Your office or SecNav’s office sends her memos on things you wish for her to accomplish; these tasks are of no joy to the agents or Ms. Bromstead. Instead of issuing a memo from your office stating that everyone needs to report to HR to complete a task you have ordered, you put it on her to deliver the news and take the blame.” Ducky sighed. “Your office caught wind of an agent under the influence of narcotics, you ordered her to call everyone in for a drug test. Instead of mandating it from your office, she was the bad guy.”

“You make a valid point,” Vance sighed. “We’re going to change that. Secretary Porter is on her way, I had to inform her of this incident. I had been working on ways to restructure the setup of the bullpen, it’s going to have to be stepped up.

“You cannot move any of us until we know who is responsible,” Tony sighed. “When I asked you to move our team up here, it was to keep an eye on her. Gibbs and I were coming out of MTAC the day you fired Henshaw, we had to bodily remove him from her office because she was pinned against the wall.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t know that Leon.” Gibbs growled. “I came to you after that incident and told you that she needed security outside her door when you have fired an agent. Also told you to have a rotation of agents that check in on her when she has an unsavory assignment to carry out.”

Tony had no idea that his boss had been advocating for his friend. Trying to not allow his shock control of his emotions, Tony made a mental note to talk to Gibbs about it later. “She’s over here by herself,” Tony growled. “Anything could happen to her which became abundantly obvious today. You have this department so broken up to suit your needs. I know that there are many divisions of HR, but as far back as Director Morrow, this has been a mess.”

“Then we take a look at the layout of the agency and fix it,” Vance sighed. “It should not have come to this, but even if she were in a cluster of office, I cannot protect her on the roof.”

“If she were in a cluster of offices either the idiot that set off this half assed stink bomb would not have done it or someone else would have noticed it and reported it while they evacuated.” Ducky sighed. “I am going to look at the layout of the offices and make suggestions. I will also make suggestions on how we are going to accomplish moving that which needs to be moved. Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go check on our patient and express my pride to Dr. Palmer for his support of his friend and the use of his skills to work on the living.”

“That is one person,” Vance sighed. “That can make my life hell if I don’t step it up. You’re right, we do not need to restructure. It has been at least thirty years that things have been this way.”

“And it is time that we make changes,” Secretary Porter commented as she walked up on the meeting of the minds. “I think it would be best if Dr. Mallard, Agents Gibbs, DiNozzo and Ms. Hines work on this together. You can have input as far as if computers and things can be moved to accommodate that. I want to find a phone contractor that can be completely vetted this time, no more issues.”

Ducky eased the door the Vance’s office open. “How is she doing?” Ducky’s whisper startled a very lost in thought, Dr. Palmer. “Jimmy?”

“She’ll sleep for a while,” Palmer shrugged. “Why would anyone lock anyone out in the cold like that? This woman would do anything for her friends. When Breena died, she cooked dinner for us every night. Came over and helped me clean the house and do laundry on the weekends until I got into a routine. Her kindness saved us, and Victoria loves her; she’s Aunt Dee.”

“Jethro will figure it out, Jimmy.” Ducky reassured. “I’m going to go pick up our lunch; I will be back.”

Delores was able to sleep due to the pain medication that Jimmy had given her. With the world that wanted to hurt her on the other side of Vance’s door, she subconsciously knew she was safe. 

“Agent Gibbs,” Palmer greeted his mentor as he walked in. Writing a note to Gibbs, the young man inquired on whether his friend’s home was being secured. Seeing Gibbs nod, he knew that it was under control and his job was to just make sure Delores was okay.

“Gibbs,” Vance made his way to the door. “Kasie needs you in the lab, she’s got a hit on prints and Burley picked up something on the video.” Moving towards the elevator, Gibbs spotted his agents huddled together in a corner looking as if their lives were hanging in the balance.


	2. Chapter 2

“Kasie,” Gibbs jogged into the lab. “What did you find?”

“Tony’s fingerprints on the rope,” Kasie sighed. “I can tell you without any hesitation, that he did not do this. He loves his friend, and he was down here with me when the door was tied shut.”

“Not again,” Gibbs sighed. “Tony was framed by Abby’s lab assistant, Chip. Let me see the rope, Kasie.” Gibbs took the evidence bag with the rope and began to look over it very carefully. “This rope,” Gibbs sighed. “Did you send the evidence over to storage on the Crump case?”

“I sent it to autopsy for Jimmy to add his evidence to it,” Kasie picked up her phone to call her friend. “Do you still have the evidence box on the Crump case? I am going to go get it and bring it to the lab.”

“Stan,” Gibbs moved through the lab into Burley’s office. “What did you find?”

“Shadows,” Stan sighed. “The camera is not aimed at the stairwell. What I can tell you is that it is a male, shorter than Tony. My gut says that if they targeted Delores and are trying to frame Tony, we need to keep him close too.”

“So, we have nothing right now,” Gibbs growled. 

“I didn’t say that.” Stan started clicking at the keyboard. “What we have is the time on when the door slammed shut, that was clearly caught on video. We also have proof of Tony being here in the lab with Kasie as the same time. Here is the video of them processing the evidence from the Delaney case. You can clearly see the time stamp on his video and Tony’s face as he and Kasie are working on pulling fingerprints from the basketballs. We need to protect his six.”  
“With me,” Gibbs and Burley made their way to Delores’s office where Tony was working at processing every inch. “Let’s work together to get this processed and sealed off.”

“We need to get Director Vance to take her files off the network,” Tony commented. “Anyone that tries to change anything in an employee…”

“Nailed dead to rights,” Vance moved around the computer and took a seat. Entering in his own information, he proceeded to do something beyond Tony’s skill set and secure the contents of the computer. “I am going to put a tracker within the HR program, anyone that changes anything will be logged but the original files will not be changed.”

“We need to get Delores out of NCIS,” Gibbs sighed. “She should pack up anything of value in her home, get together enough things for a few days and be ready to be relocated until we can sort all of this out.”

“We need to find her someplace that she can have Pebbles, Bam Bam and Dino.” Tony looked up to see the confused look on the faces of everyone around. “Oh, I got her three kittens a couple months ago, they had those names when we adopted them. They were so cute that she kept them.”

“What else have you done for her?” Vance was interrogating Tony without really interrogating the man. “I didn’t realize that you were so close.”

“Started off with Secret Santa,” Tony shrugged. “There was something about the look she gave me when she opened her gift, I wanted to know more of her story. We went to dinner that night and the friendship grew from there. I slowly worked her up to hanging out with the gang. When her lease was up, I went with her to look at condos and helped her move. She was having a hard time with the move, it felt too isolated since it much quieter, so I found the kids for her.”

“Turn around,” Vance pulled his handcuffs from his back pocket. “This is for not inviting me to game night. Agent Burley, I want you to go over to Ms. Bromstead’s home and secure it until we can get there. Before you leave, I want you to help me escort Agent DiNozzo out. You mind walking through handcuffs to get some reaction?”

“Not one bit,” Tony snorted. “Rule 35.”

“Ooh-rah,” Gibbs grunted as he opened the door leading the hallway. 

“Let’s do it,” Tony debated on how to play it, in the end he decided that silence allowed him to look guilty, but also to take in the reaction of the others as he was paraded through the bullpen.

Walking ahead, Gibbs stopped at Tony’s desk to collect his belongings, making a big show of bagging them for evidence. The look of angst on his face was a mask for the rage he felt. Turning on his heels, he caught up with Vance as he pushed Tony into the elevator to head for holding. 

“Guess the ugly, old bat was too much for him to handle.” Torres commented as he moved back to his desk, unaware of Ducky listening as he walked through with lunch. Making his way into Vance’s office, the elder man placed lunch on the table with a great deal of aggravation. “Anthony has been arrested.”

“What?” Delores blinked hard as she moved to sit up. “He didn’t close that door; he wouldn’t do that to me. We have to help him. I have to talk to Director Vance, where are they taking him?”

“I’m fine,” Tony made his way in the private door to Vance’s office with Vance and Gibbs following him. “It was for show so we can watch the bullpen, see what they say and do. Stan is heading to your condo to make sure everything is ok. We’re going to get you and the kids out of there for a while. Director Vance is taking all this very seriously, he wants to protect you.”

“I see,” Delores sighed. “What happens when this one is over and the next one happens? I get threats all the time.”

“I found the letters when I was processing your office,” Tony confessed. “This is all going to stop, things are going to be restructured so that you are not by yourself with no witnesses. Secretary Porter has ordered a physical restructuring of the agency. It worked when it worked, but we aren’t the same as when it started.”

“You go that right,” Palmer growled. “The men and women of this agency should be held to a higher standard; we are supposed to be bringing justice and closure. Whoever did this, participated in a crime.”

“Can I go home?” Delores looked up at Gibbs. “I need to get my kittens out of there before someone hurts them. They are all the family I have, Agent Gibbs.”

“Eat some lunch first,” Gibbs pointed to the food in front of them group. “I made a call to the local law enforcement and told them what was going on. Director Vance made a deal with them, we’ll help them with security when they have something big going on if they will help out. Agent Burley is on his way to secure it and install some cameras.”

Delores was hesitant until Vance started handing out the meals and everyone sat down to eat. Lost in thought, she somehow made it through her meal only to be startled when Tony gently reached over to take the empty container. “Thank you.”

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. We can trust Director Vance and you know that I have your back. You are my best friend, Delores Bromstead and I don’t care what I have to do to protect you.” Tony left his friend with her napkins and drink while he cleaned up from lunch with Palmer and Ducky’s help.

“I have been trying to think of what I said, or did that made someone want to hurt me,” Delores sighed. “I always put in writing what the violation was or what was missing or deficient in their files.”

“You did nothing to deserve this,” Palmer growled. “We are grown ass adults and you have a job to do. If someone does not like how you address an issue, there is a way to converse about it. I have never seen or overheard you telling someone that wanted clarification to go away. If you cannot address the issue they have, you always point them in the direction of the answer.”

“There is never a good reason for someone to be a bully,” Ducky added. “I do not care what they feel or think their reasons may be. What was done to you was inexcusable and these letters are criminal. Children that are committing suicide because of bullies are victims of senseless criminally charged acts that should bring legal charges against them.”

“The minor and the parent should both be charged with the criminal act,” Vance growled. “Jared has been bullied for being the kid of a cop; he was taunted about his mother dying. My son was mourning the loss of his mother and some brat that was the clone of his bigot father came after him about his mother dying.” 

“You take no blame,” Gibbs gave Delores a pointed look that surprisingly put her at ease.

“Bullying is a learned behavior in children, more times than not. In adults, it’s a way to attempt to show superiority.” Ducky sighed. “I do wish I still have that large monstrosity of a house; I would open my door to you.”

“Anyone watching would expect her to be taken to my apartment,” Tony sat down with a thud. “Can’t do your house, Gibbs, too predictable. Same with Palmer, Ducky, Burley and Director Vance, we need a safe house.”

“I have it arranged,” Secretary Porter handed the address over to Gibbs. “It’s mine, fully furnished and currently uninhabited. Make sure that she is protected.” Turning to Delores, Secretary Porter took a seat beside her. “I am deeply sorry that this happened to you and I will do everything in my power to make sure that it does not every happen again. I want your input on how to restructure your department after you have had some sleep.”

“Thank you,” Delores whispered, relief washing over her, nobody would think to even mess with any property of Secretary Porter. With Gibbs and Tony there to protect her, she could work her way through the agents that might have a grudge and bring some closure.

TBC

Weigh in.... Who can you see doing this to Delores?


End file.
